A new study, conducted by legal AI platform LawGeex in consultation with law professors from Stanford University, Duke University School of Law, and University of Southern California, pitted twenty experienced lawyers against an AI trained to evaluate legal contracts.

The human lawyers achieved, on average, an 85 percent accuracy rate, while the AI achieved 95 percent accuracy. The AI also completed the task in 26 seconds, while the human lawyers took 92 minutes on average. The AI also achieved 100 percent accuracy in one contract, on which the highest-scoring human lawyer scored only 97 percent. In short, the human lawyers were trounced.

So will this cost lawyers their jobs?

The linked article says no:

“So does this spell the end of humanity? Not at all. On the contrary, the use of AI can actually help lawyers expedite their work, and free them up to focus on tasks that still require a human brain.”

On the Other hand…

Yes these tools will make existing lawyers more productive, but that doesn’t mean it won’t cost lawyers’ jobs. How many billable hours have already been lost to LegalZoom?

We see something similar happenning with AI’s outdiagnosing doctors. Will we soon live in a world where we receive some or all of our medical care and legal advice from machine?